Getting My Holiday Spirit Back

I am not a Scrooge. While that suspiciously sounds like something a Scrooge would say, I'm really not! I've just had a tough time with Christmas spirit over the course of the last four years or so. I don't remember when I lost my sense of Christmas spirit, but I think that it was sometime around when I moved away for college.

I feel like the logically makes sense. It was my first time feeling like an adult (mostly because it was the first time I was legally an adult and responsible for myself, as I turned 18 during November of my freshmen year). I was never the biggest holiday fan before then anyways, mostly because I love the fall season and prefer Thanksgiving because it's the holiday that we host at my house. But, some switch inside of me turned off during the winter of 2013 and I just wasn't jolly anymore. I dreaded Christmas: the snow, the cold, the carols, the songs, the never-ending gifts, the peppermint, everything that went along with the holiday just became dull to me. I just felt tired and completely bothered by the holiday nonsense going on around me while I was exhaused from a long fall semester while also preparing for an even longer spring semester. 

But now I want my Christmas spirit back. I want to feel the same childhood sense of excitement around the holiday season that I used to. I don't believe the holidays to be a time of extravegent gifts or anything like that, but it's always been a special time of year to be around family. I think more than ever now, having that in my life is extremely important given what's gone on the past few weeks.

So, I've enlisted the help of a couple of my friends to help guide me back to having the Christmas spirit, one step at a time.

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I enlisted the help of my friends Maddie and Hannah to share their tips to jazz me up for the holidays. I think they might celebrate all year round. Really, it wouldn't surprise me (love you two!), but I certainly don't judge them for it. Though, I think there might be evidence on my Twitter threatening to throw Maddie off the balcony of our hotel room because she was playing Christmas music. In her defense, it was "All I Want For Christmas Is You," which is an absolute bop. I digress, they're my resident holiday experts and I'm looking to them for help this season. 

Maddie was appalled at the lack of Christmas movies that I've seen in my lifetime. I will admit, I think that I've only seen around five Christmas movies in my life: Elf, Love Actually, The Holiday, Rudolph, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon short only). I've admittedly seen A Christmas Story and despite living in Cleveland for four years, I actually hated the movie. I'M SORRY, I'M VERY SORRY. I know it's a cult classic but...not to be too basic...I literally can't. 

I feel like the easiest way to spark an interest in Christmas again is to delve deep into the holiday movies. This means both proper films, animated films, and that's right–Hallmark movies. I watched three in a row on Saturday and even felt compelled to wear a Christmas sweater and listen to Mree's new Christmas EP (which is great, you can listen to it here).

Maddie's list of movies include: 

• Eloise at Christmas
• Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Santa Claus 
• Home Alone 1 and Home Alone 2
• White Christmas

I also know for a fact that she had a Christmas playlist on her phone all year round and will listen to it no matter what season it is. While I probably won't be fully immersed into holiday music until after Thanksgiving, I do always have a nice playlist waiting in the wings for when I am ready. Sometimes a few songs slip into rotation earlier, usually due to the fact that a lot of radio stations start playing their festive music on November 1st and malls and stores start to follow suit.

When I told Hannah that I wanted my Christmas spirit back this year, this was her exact response: JINGLE JINGLE ITS ME RING RING RING HO HO HO. She offered to give me a crash course and joked about a Powerpoint but I'm still not entirely sure if she was joking or not...

Vlogmas is one of my favorite parts of YouTube during the month of December. A lot of content creators will do Vlogmas, which is essentially 24 to 25 days of vlogging in a row starting on December 1st leading up until Christmas Eve. Zoella does this every year and as far as I'm concerned, she's the British Queen of Christmas. So of course, it's no surprise that Hannah suggested that I rewatch past Vlogmas videos of my favorite YouTubers so their holiday spirit rubs off on me.

She also suggested that I decorate this year, beyond the tree in the living room. She suggested I hit up Target, Marshalls, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters to, and I quote, "Christmas it up." I have to provide some sort of proof of decorating by December 14th, so perhaps I should make a future post about this to avoid scolding. She suggested a small tree, fairy lights, tiny baubles, and a Christmas candle. Sometimes you just have to surround yourself with the holly jolly materials to instill a little holiday spirit in yourself.

Jacket: J.Crew (exact coat, currently on sale!) | Hat: J.Crew (similar, currently on sale!) | Sunglasses: Quay | Lipstick: YSL  (shade 1 Le Rouge)

I think most of all, I think I just have to hold myself accountable. I'm not one to stop myself from feeling however I feel in the moment, but I think this holiday season is going to take a bit more effort from me. It's been hard with the family things going on, but I've also been in a weird mood since moving back home from Cleveland. I've talked about my I Don't Know Period on the blog in the past and it gets very exhausting feeling stagnant. But I'm not going to let this get me down this holiday season! I want to feel merry and bright and spread Christmas cheer for everyone to hear.

What's your favorite part of the holiday season, Christmas related or not? 

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